Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention relates to sliding doors of the type commonly used as part of a bathing enclosure. More particularly it relates to doors that are suspended from and slidable along an overhead track.
Bathing enclosures often have an opening that is closed with a pair of sliding doors. There is a lower track mounted on the rim of the tub or shower pan and another track mounted in a xe2x80x9cheaderxe2x80x9d near the top of the enclosure. Doors typically slide in separate, parallel tracks within the header and are able to slide past each other. A pair of rollers is mounted on each door that ride in a groove in an overhead track. The rollers enable the door to glide in a horizontal direction along the header.
Typically the header is installed into the opening before the doors are hung on the tracks. Consequently, there is no access to the tracks located in the header from their sides. Rather, the doors must be hung on the tracks by tilting and then lifting the doors up until the rollers fit over a rail, and then by tilting the doors back and setting them down with the rollers on grooves of the rails.
This requires a relatively large gap between the roller and the top of the door panel. Absent other structures, the rollers may be inadvertently derailed due to this gap. For example, if the door is shut with too much force it may rebound upward instead of just straight back along the track. A structure such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,929,115 is an example of an assembly of this type that is susceptible to such a problem. The disclosure of this patent and of all other publications referred to herein are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth.
There were some attempts to avoid the derailment problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,666 disclosed the use of a threaded fastener for reducing the size of the gap after the doors were installed. Although this was a considerable improvement over the prior art, the fasteners were somewhat difficult to access, and a screwdriver was needed to rotate them.
German exclusion patent DD 291,114 disclosed the use of a push-on locking member to help take up some of the gap. However, the connection between that locking member and the bracket was not a sufficiently secure one.
Thus, it can be seen that a need still exists for improved systems for preventing derailing of such doors.
In one aspect the invention provides a door system for an enclosure which has an opening. The door system has a track extending along an upper portion of the opening that has a rail with an upper track surface and a lower surface. There is also a door, at least one hanging bracket attached to an upper portion of the door, and a roller attached to the hanging bracket such that the roller can ride on the track surface of the rail while the door is suspended from the roller below the rail.
In accordance with the present invention there is also a clip attachable to the hanging bracket by a snap-fit connection such that at least a portion of the clip is positioned under the rail lower surface yet above the height of the top of the door. When the clip is attached to the hanging bracket it can restrict removal of the roller from the rail.
The clip can include a top lip engageable with an upwardly facing catch surface of the bracket and a bottom lip engageable with a downwardly facing catch surface of the bracket. The bottom lip is preferably a foot of a flexible leg which can deflect relative to the top lip as the clip is being snapped onto the hanging bracket.
There is also preferably a recess and projection connection between the bracket and clip along essentially vertical surfaces of both. The recess and projection connection aligns the clip along the bracket and also serves to restrict it from sliding sideways relative to the bracket once the clip is snapped on the bracket. The projection is preferably a cylindrical projection extendable from the clip towards the bracket and the recess is preferably a circular groove in the hanging bracket suitable to receive the projection.
The hanging bracket is preferably made from extruded aluminum and the clip is preferably made from a flexible plastic. Other materials may be suitable as well, depending on the environment in which the system is used.
In bypass door type systems (such as would be used desirable to control access to a shower enclosure), there can be two such doors, each hanging from a separate such rail by at least two such rollers attached to at least two such hanging brackets secured by two such clips.
An advantage of the present invention is to provide a door assembly in which the doors are resistant to derailing. Another advantage is to provide such an assembly in which the anti-derailing feature can be activated and deactivated quickly, without special tools.
These and still other advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description below.